The first operational British jet-powered fighter was the Gloster Meteor.
Following the wartime Meteor Mk.Is and Mk.III, the post-war Mk.4 version was produced with much better performance.
On 7 November 1945, a world speed record attempt was made with two Meteor Mk.3s converted to Mk.4 standard.
The RAF High Speed Flight Meteors, serial numbers EE454 and EE455, were flown by RAF Group Captain Hugh Joseph Wilson and Gloster Chief Test Pilot Eric Stanley Greenwood.
Wilson, flying the camouflaged EE454, was a few miles faster than Greenwood in the (almost) all-yellow EE455, who improved the record to 975.68 mph.
Less than a year later, Captain E. M. (Teddy) Donaldson set a new record of 991.33 km/h in a Meteor with serial number EE549, and in January 1947 the same machine also improved the speed record between Paris and London.
The last generation of Meteor fighters was manufactured by Armstrong Whitworth.
Unlike the earlier versions, these were two-seat night and all-weather fighters equipped with radar in the nose.
In the early stages of the Cold War they defended the UK against the threat of Soviet bombers with nuclear weapons.
The Meteor Mk.12 version was fitted with a US-made APS-21 radar, known to the RAF as the AI Mk.21.
Decals for:
scale 1:72
unbuilt / unpainted
Following the wartime Meteor Mk.Is and Mk.III, the post-war Mk.4 version was produced with much better performance.
On 7 November 1945, a world speed record attempt was made with two Meteor Mk.3s converted to Mk.4 standard.
The RAF High Speed Flight Meteors, serial numbers EE454 and EE455, were flown by RAF Group Captain Hugh Joseph Wilson and Gloster Chief Test Pilot Eric Stanley Greenwood.
Wilson, flying the camouflaged EE454, was a few miles faster than Greenwood in the (almost) all-yellow EE455, who improved the record to 975.68 mph.
Less than a year later, Captain E. M. (Teddy) Donaldson set a new record of 991.33 km/h in a Meteor with serial number EE549, and in January 1947 the same machine also improved the speed record between Paris and London.
The last generation of Meteor fighters was manufactured by Armstrong Whitworth.
Unlike the earlier versions, these were two-seat night and all-weather fighters equipped with radar in the nose.
In the early stages of the Cold War they defended the UK against the threat of Soviet bombers with nuclear weapons.
The Meteor Mk.12 version was fitted with a US-made APS-21 radar, known to the RAF as the AI Mk.21.
Decals for:
- four RAF aircraft
scale 1:72
unbuilt / unpainted
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